Bay Islands Of Honduras: Huge Barrier Reef, Brings Curious Buyers To Caribbean Coast
Phil Weir is a sucker for clear, warm water and tropical fish. He has taken dive trips all over the globe and so loved an area in the western Caribbean approximately 40 miles off the northeast coast of Honduras and about 200 miles south of Cancun that in 1991 he bought a place on the island of Roatan, the largest of 50 islands and keys that are collectively known as Islas de la Bahia, or Bay Islands.
"I had always been in the diving business in one form or another," Weir said. "But in 2001, I thought I would open a real estate office and then 911 happened. We got it going in 2002, nearly starved for a year and half and then were amazed when we did $20 million in sales in 2005. It seems the divers told more divers... who then told their snorkeling buddies."
First Costa Rica, then Panama, and now the world has discovered the beauty of Honduras for a variety of reasons - not the least of which is the Barrier Reef of Roatán, second largest in the world. More than 10,000 U.S. citizens live in Honduras full time. Most live in the capital city of Tegucigalpa and the manufacturing center of San Pedro Sula with its large industrial parks and tax benefits. The second-home center of the country is the Bay Islands of Roatan, Utila and Guanaja plus the mainland beach areas near the fruit towns of La Ceiba, Tela and Trujillo where the green forests behind the deserted beaches feature waterfalls and clear mountain rivers. Like several Central America getaways, most of Honduras is still off the mainstream, second-home radar screen with beachfront condos readily available for less than $200,000.
The lure of Roatan, about 32 miles long and two miles wide, is its extensive barrier reef
system that offers some of the clearest saltwater swimming in the world. It is the largest of the chains six main islands and can be reached by non-stop flights from Houston, Miami and Atlanta. While Roatan is still in the early stages of development as a tourist destination, and the overall level of development is still modest on an international scale, the last few years have seen a substantial increase in real estate activity and the number and quality of new developments. More people are simply auditioning the Jimmy Buffet-island lifestyle and/or investment opportunities. The island is better known for its decompression chamber for divers than it is for its several clinics, two hospitals, American trained doctors and state-of-the-art medical equipment. And, it's no longer a sleepy, little island waiting for people to show up so the locals can survive - nearly one million cruise ship passengers visit each year.
Marci Wiersma, a Pacific Northwest native, moved to Roatan in 1999 in search of slower, warmer days. She juggles the chores of her real estate brokerage with the responsibilities of raising two young daughters. "The real estate market has really moved along the past three years but I think it has a long way to go before it caps out," Wiersma said.
T.J. Lynch, broker-owner of RE/MAX Bay Islands Real Estate, sold his Vancouver, B.C.-area property company more than 10 years ago to head south to the sun and sand. "I would estimate that business is going up by more than 100 percent every year," said Lynch, one of eight agents in the office By: The Real Estate Communicator Article Source: http://www.ArticleDashboard.com Tom Kelly is a real estate columnist and radio show host with 33 years of experience as a professional journalist providing consumer hints and tips, as well as explaining concepts and terms in a friendly, understandable style. His book, Cashing In on a Second Home in Central America, is considered an indispensable guide to Latin America real estate purchase south of the border.
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